Product Description

Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion.

Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings.

The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114896 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Released on: 2006-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060845391
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Taking Mark, the earliest Gospel, as their guide, Borg and Crossan "retell a story everyone thinks they know too well and most do not seem to know at all." So doing, they offer an alternative passion of the Christ, the primary feature of which is not suffering (Latin passio) but passion understood Anglophonically as "consuming interest, dedicated enthusiasm, or concentrated commitment." Jesus' passion was the kingdom of God declared in terms of God's justice, they say, and the fact that such declaration was seen, despite Jesus' nonviolence, as a threat to the system of domination by Rome and its wealthy Jewish collaborators led to his suffering. Borg and Crossan parse Mark's reportage (so to speak) on the days from Palm Sunday to Easter to demonstrate the challenges Jesus made to Roman and Herodian-temple rule. They point up Jesus' insistence on justice, especially equitable distribution of necessities, and such too-little-noticed matters as Jesus' great popularity, attested by the crowds who hang on his words and his adversaries' fears of angering those crowds; so fearful are they that they must find a traitor, seize Jesus at night, and whisk him through the courts. Written with Crossan's scholarly scintillation rather than Borg's sometimes plodding earnestness, this is politically concerned analysis of Christianity at its best. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"If there is [...] one book for the redemption of Holy Week, this is it. This is a must read..." -- Peter J. Gomes, Harvard University

"[...] Borg and Crossan show one of the most careful and insightful readings of the Bible I’ve ever come across." -- Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian

Review
"These controversial Jesus Seminar scholars provide lots to ponder." (The Kansas City Star )

"[...] Borg and Crossan show one of the most careful and insightful readings of the Bible I've ever come across." (Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian )

"A readable and attractive reinterpretation of Jesus' death and resurrection. . . ." (Houston Chronicle )

"If there is.one book for the redemption of Holy Week, this is it. A must read." (Peter J. Gomes, Harvard University )

"Borg and Crossan brilliantly chronicle the tension that forced everyone to pledge allegiance -- either to Rome or to Jesus." (Los Angeles Times )

"It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this volume[...]" (Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Leaving Church and Preaching Life )

Customer Reviews

Timely, Thoughtful, Well Researched and Written
If you are looking for well researched insights, interpretations, and translations of current and historical contexts for the meanings of biblical parables and perhaps more importantly the historical contexts of St. Mark's gospel, read this timely and well researched interpretation of the Passion of Christ and the details related to the 7 days from Palm (Passion) Sunday to Easter Sunday by Borg & Crossan.

Whether you are researching or interested in the fundamental roots of Christianity or curious about the historical context of the Roman and Jewish framework of the times surrounding the events of easter week you will not be disappointed by the scholarly research and interpretations presented regarding the 'cipher' meanings embedded in St. Mark's account.

I truly enjoyed the author's viewpoints expressed and this book is a welcome addition to the bookshelf of those who are interested in the probable nature of how these events transpired.

An important new approach to understanding Jesus's message
This book is far more than just two prominent biblical scholars combining to tell us what they think "really" happened during Easter week. Rather, Borg and Crossan focus their skills on what they call a much "simpler" and "humbler" task: retelling and explaining "the last week of Jesus's life as given in the Gospel According to Mark. . . a story everyone thinks they know too well and most do not seem to know at all." Virtually every biblical scholar agrees that Mark's gospel is the first to be written, but anyone who thinks that its author viewed Jesus's passion and death as an atonement for our sins and the way to heaven for those who "accept" that fact simply MUST read this book. It represents a genuine step forward in understanding the New Testament on its own terms, rather than on the terms that we today impose on it.

New Perspectives, New Insights in to the Old, Old Story
At first glance, and through much of the first third or so of the book, it appears as if this is a book for the learned and scholarly, much too "academic" for the casual reader seeking a new perspective or new insights....then, as Thursday approaches, the book "takes off," telling once again, the " Old, Old Story" with new insight and different perspectives, all of them reverent and respectful---respectful of those who want to take the Bible literally, but also respectful---and reassuring and challenging--to those who want to see and beleive the Bible in a different manner. Good book, well worth the read...Especially meaningful when read during Holy Week, one day at a time. A good addition to the Easter Literature and Perspective. Good addition.